Post II of the Day

Not that I want to spam your blog page, but Spanish wifi wouldn't let me upload the last post for three days. And so here follow a few overdue images of Burgos: Sima in front of a store sign
Gargoyles!

the Center of Town

Near the Cathedral

:

Fountain in the park, and El Cid below

Burgos below, as seen from the Castle

Sima and I, below, at a mirrored hall in the Cathedral

The tomb of El Cid, below, quite flat
A chapel in the Cathedral

Since Tuesday, Sima, Doris and I have returned to the cathedral where we drank for an educational tour. The Cathedral is beautiful. It looks like Notre Dame, but houses royals, medieval art and the tomb of El Cid, Spain's equivalent of Bravheart. El Cid is one of Burgos' icons; in the 11th century he was famous for fighting the Moors.

Besides field trips, the three of us have been grappling with Spanish culture. Our program is an immersion program, which basically means Spanish 24/7. We don't know any Americans yet, mostly we have Spaniard friends. While language comprehension gets easier by the day, the concepts of dating, friendship, and swearing are more interesting.

Swearing is fairly feasible, considering that Spaniards curse (literally) every other sentence. I'm personally fond of the phrase "puta madre", or literally, "prostitute mother". You can say "puta madre!" if you're upset, or if someone is "de puta madre" it means "they're the shit!" There's also "joder", "jolin", and "hostia". Also to say that one is the cat's pijamas you say "es la leche", which means "they're the milk".

Making friends is easy and hard at the same time, though. Platonic friendships between the sexes are not rare, but less common than in the States. Which makes it hard to read people's intentions sometimes. Not that the boys on our floor make it very difficult for us. Considering that so far I have only one female acquaintance...yeah. The boys here are stereotypically good-looking and extremely welcoming, but this comes at the cost of their collective maturity level.

Some of them have the common sense to ask for a girl's phone number, while others have resorted to more creative antics.

How to explain...

I keep my door shut in the evenings so I can do my homework. During that time, the following things happen. For one, any given time I'll hear a series of rapid, hard knocks followed by the sound of feet scampering away and lots of giggles down the hall. Of course, I don't answer, because there is no one at the door.

Last night I heard the following song chanted in the hallway: "Veronica Electronica, your boyfriend's here." This would refer to one of the boys I've hung out alot with. He is generally laconic and helps me with my homework oftentimes, but his quietness is made up for by his friends.

And today, I was innocently standing at the front desk, signing the attendance sheet for dining hall meals when Sima said, "Hey Veronica, someone wrote a note next to your signature." At first I thought the receptionist had made a note that maintenance needed to fix my shower or something, but then I read it. Next to my name there was a word, but I couldn't read it, because someone scratched it out and wrote something else. It said, "Veronica G <-- MAN. YEAH!"

Words fail me. In any case, as it's Thursday, I better go to dinner to fill up on something to absorb whatever is to be imbibed tonight.